Grandma Lou and Grandpa Ron took me home just as winter was setting in.
Now, keep in mind—I’m a little Southern boy, born and raised where snow is about as common as a unicorn sighting. So when I first saw snow, I had no clue what it was.
I still had a pretty good vocabulary back then—way beyond what most kids could dream of.
One time, years later, I was hanging out with my mom, and she asked me,45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ83g9Z9qGLW
“Do you still know what congeniality means?”45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcFGqqRyOsU
And I said, “No.”45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj7SbvkFWos
She laughed and told me we were watching the Miss America pageant when I was two, and I asked her,45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPbBPYAsYx2
“Am I Mr. Congeniality?”
That’s when I realized: I had a vocabulary most kids could only dream about.
So, when we finally got to Grandma and Grandpa’s house and Grandpa tried to put me down in the snow, I wasn’t about to let that happen without a fight.
I looked at him and said,45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQHlq9XM6vt
“No! You ain’t puttin’ me down in that bird poop. Ew!”
Snow might have been a mystery, but some things—even at two years old—were crystal clear.
Grandpa looked at me and said,45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN6flUs69qZ
“Bud, it ain’t bird poop. It’s snow.”
I looked him dead in the eye and said,45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0LX3KR75we
“Don’t care. Ew! Don’t know what that stuff is.”
But of course, they sat me down in it anyway.
I put my hand on the snow. It was cold. Real cold. Like, why cold?
I ran straight to the back door, shivering and not looking back.
Grandma still has that sign on her back porch that says,45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC5DkiJ6eZw
“Backdoor Guests Are Best.”
Guess even back then, I wasn’t just any guest—I was family.
I guess even back then, I wasn’t exactly a guest.
Now, I’m not going to go over every little “evil” thing I did while living with my grandparents—that would take forever.
But I will tell you this:45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmk7Pw5eG4b
When I was four, I ran away from home.
Not because I wanted to see the world or anything fancy like that.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp8LEQP7iTN
Nope.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI0HMHxk3fD
I just didn’t want to do chores.
I had gotten this little plastic cow on a leash for Christmas, and I took him with me when I went over to the next-door neighbor’s house.
We called her Grandma Coe—because that’s just what you do in the South.
Grandma Coe looked at me and said,45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqy96jBcX4k
“Darlin’, you can’t stay here. You gotta go back to your Grandma’s.”
So she called ahead, and Grandma Lou was waiting.
When I saw Grandma Lou, spanked me on the botom, and then I said if you spank me you gotta spank cow he 's my cacomplis. if that cow could talk it would have said, snitches get stiches.
The next year, I went to two weeks of preschool summer camp at the Indiana School for the Blind.
Now, I gotta tell you—there was a pool at Sals Park, and I got dunked by an older student.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCaoK1yX0ta
Almost drowned twice.
Yeah, not exactly the best swim lessons ever.
But other than that, it was a good time.
After camp, I started kindergarten at Lambert Hall at the Indiana School for the Blind.
My kindergarten teacher was Miss Francoviac.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRrJUpvIVSp
She was patient and kind—exactly what a little blind kid like me needed to start figuring things out.
So, the first week at school, they had this giant snake pillow in our classroom.
I asked if it had a name.
Miss Warren, our class aide, said,45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP8A9ZEhNyw
“No, it doesn’t have a name. Why don’t you name it?”
Well, the week before school started, I’d had a Faygo Redpop soda.
And that snake pillow was bright red—just like my soda.
So I named it Redpop.
And just like that, Redpop the snake became part of the class.
Miss Murray was the boss of our house parents.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ27yN5rbE1
But she wasn’t just some authority figure with a clipboard and a whistle.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH6L7AVIbjs
She actually played with us kids.
One time, she took us for a ride on this old horse wagon. We were laughing, bouncing around, having the time of our lives.
But after a while, she stopped and said,45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ429LEaCK8p
“Alright, kids—you gotta get off.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM1pv2B2qlQ
This is a horse buggy, not a Miss Murray buggy!”
We groaned and begged for one more ride, but she just laughed that Miss Murray laugh and helped us all down.
She had that perfect balance: fun like a big sister, firm like a momma, and always looking out for us.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGVwPnuCICh
45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG7PYPm9gp3
Now Miss Murray, bless her heart, could be a real goofball when she wanted to be.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡReqc1OyVyM
And sometimes... she had jokes.
There was this one time—she kept playing pranks on me.
She had these little toy R2-D2s, you know, the beeping robot from Star Wars.
Well, somehow those things kept moving.
One minute they were on the shelf.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKF2z8nLuFC
Next minute, they were across the room.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCooO3RnYrs
Then they'd be in my chair.
And every time I asked what was going on, Miss Murray just said,45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2dnbjijAPJ
“Oh, that’s just the poltergeists.”
Like it was nothing!45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3jzFLuOuh8
Just casual ghost robots, no big deal.
I was half creeped out, half laughing—and 100% convinced that R2-D2 had joined the paranormal.
To this day, I’m still not sure how she pulled it off.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNNSpeksqBK
But one thing’s for sure:45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuggYi6arMg
Miss Murray kept us on our toes—and always smiling.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLVr6MRQqL0
45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrROMTlVR7M
I had to leave the school for a while.
Not because I failed or got in trouble—nothing like that.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUctLl4NLxt
It was because of my pituitary dwarfism.
I was smaller than the other students, and the school staff was worried about me.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZR9pfITEet
They didn’t want to throw me into first grade, not when they knew I’d stick out and likely get picked on.
So they suggested I retake kindergarten.
Not because I couldn’t handle the work—45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz0INJhSBBy
but because of my size.
They were trying to protect me, I know that now.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPIjFzeSPng
But at the time, it felt like I got held back for something I couldn’t control.
That was one of the first times I realized that being different—really different—was going to come with some extra hurdles.
But God still had me in His hands, even then.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhXcEI54wql
Even when I didn’t understand it.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKCfpeNPHk4
So I ended up retaking kindergarten anyway—45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDUi9K72lF9
this time at Pettit Park School in Kokomo.
That move turned out to be a blessing in disguise.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2t2Tai7yCQ
Because it was then that people really started teaching me about God.
We started going to Four Square Assembly of God,45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzlNmB204LL
and Grandma began reading me bedtime stories straight from the Bible.
Those weren’t just stories to me.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡajQTIuIRdq
They were adventures.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgfUXz47zXZ
Heroes and battles, miracles and mercy—45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡANRxNl4GSl
and in every one of them, God was there.
That summer, I gave my life to Jesus.
I was baptized in a swimming pool, since our church didn’t have a baptismal.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvOIhSxTq22
Didn’t matter—water’s water when the Spirit moves.
I went down a little boy,45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡORHEWr5vMp
and came up with something new—45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNjrbfuf6xW
a heart learning to follow Jesus.45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOREuBAZT42
45Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB6lmKRjBqt
